Well, if they are the proper weight and certifications the manufacturer wants no foul here. Gonzo you did the right thing! Customers should not be so picky anyway and if so they need to change there own oil!

I found some guy's 14mm open end wrench, on a sharp turn at an intersection I crossed for my daily walk. Turns out it was a Snap-On and I looked up the price as I was curious and it was pretty expensive for one long wrench. $50.00 find! Perhaps the most expensive thing I ever found on the side of the road that was very usable! I guess long wrenches can be evasive too.

maybe not, the next generation of cars will have the autonomous feature of being able to fix itself! It will drive itself to a location and a bunch of automated arms will hover over the engine, make the diagnosis and put in the new already programed parts, and you will be off your way. The only thing that will be the same is the price of repair, still going up!

I wonder what the percentage is of shop owners that never worked as techs and shop owners that have worked as techs before they became shop owners? I would think there are more shop owners with backgrounds as techs!

luxury is something that you can do without and in automobiles it adds to the complexity and price of automobiles. power windows even though most cars have them in my book is still luxury, even though it could be argued that it is cheaper for manufactures to just include them as standard.

Yea, I recognized your wooden model! You have to wonder when did the shift from practical innovations or improvements to the automobile, change to luxury type innovations that really are not needed and just add cost to the automobile. What year do you think that happened?